


warden's nightmare

by The_Cursed_Blade



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Everyone Needs A Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulation, author needs a hug, i just kept thinking about sam hearing about what dream did from dream, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29260029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Cursed_Blade/pseuds/The_Cursed_Blade
Summary: Sam has locked up Dream, but Dream can still talk.  And he talks about things that Sam would rather not hear.  Not today.  Not ever.---Canon aligned writing about Dream telling Sam about what he did to Tommy.  That's it.  That's the fic.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Sam | Awesamdude, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Sam | Awesamdude & TommyInnit
Kudos: 208





	warden's nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> listen, this is really not my best writing, but i need to be done with it, so this is yours now.

The walk through the prison was quiet, tense. Sam walked in front, only stopping to talk when there was a place that he needed Dream to stand. Behind Dream, Sapnap and BadBoyHalo were walking in silence too. Neither of them seemed to know what to do with themselves as they were taking someone that they had considered a friend to the prison. Sapnap's gaze avoided Dream completely through the walk. But Dream was harder to read. He hadn't taken off the mask and just moved where he was told to.

As far as they had made it into the prison, there was no real hope of getting out without Sam's keycard and dedicated knowledge of the prison. Even though Dream commissioned the prison, there were still mechanics to it that Dream wouldn't understand and Sam was relieved that he had done some of that work alone. Dream knew that there were things he couldn't figure out to escape right here and now, too. He wouldn't rock the boat right now.

Sam didn't know what else to say. Although this place is his to manage, it was paid for by Dream. He shouldn't care who winds up inside of it, but he does care, quite a bit more than he would want to talk about. He had seen the looks on Tommy and Tubbo when they had walked through the portal. There was grief beyond what he would have ever wanted kids their age to have in their eyes. Sam had been able to hide his anger about it behind his own mask, but he still could feel his stomach roll with the anger of it all.

It was that look on Tommy and Tubbo's faces that had solidified how Sam felt about the world that these kids were living in and if there was one person that he didn't trust anymore, it was Dream. He was always the one that things came back to. And now, Sam clenched his fist, Dream would be locked away, kept far away from the general population. Sam shook his head and focused on the path that he was walking, the steps that he needed to walk through to make sure that the prison stayed secure.

There wasn't room for error at this moment. It was only after Dream was locked away safely that he was going to be able to feel even remotely at ease.

The final cell was in view, Sam directed Dream to the platform and then set him moving forward with nothing in his inventory, just a sea of lava under him. Dream didn't look back, didn't look over his shoulder at the group of them. Sapnap was saying nothing, but Sam could hear it when he shifted uncomfortably in his armor. BadBoyHalo was more relaxed about it, still stiff, but he seemed to take it seriously enough to stand still.

Sam wasn't going to hold Sapnap against the standard of being a perfect guard right now. There was time for emotions as far as he was concerned.

But there's something about this that makes him uncomfortable. Getting him to this cell felt too easy. There was no fighting back. There was no arguing. The whole trip had been silent. Sam stood straighter when he realized that. And then he hit the switch that dropped the lava pour down. Dream turned around then, looked at Sam just as the lava started reaching the door, a smile not just on his face, but on his actual face beneath the mask visible since he had pulled the mask just a little bit.

It's not the Warden's place to ask questions or to get too personally involved with the prisoners, Sam reminded himself and he closed his eyes for a moment before he went back to the other matters.

And that night when he got a letter from Tommy, a request to see Dream the next day. There was no time and no reason to tell him no. And the kid needed this. When Tommy showed up on the doorstep of Pandora's Vault, Sam let him in and put on the serious voice of a Warden. He played the part of someone that's outside of the conflict, even though he already felt like he was in the middle of it when he looked at Tommy's determined face that slipped to betray the anxiety that the kid was really feeling. But the worst of the anxiety came from the locker of all things. But the more Sam thought about it, the more he got it. Tommy had just put the villain away, now he was going to go in with nothing. He'd want his weapon, his armor, his everything if he was in Tommy's shoes, too.

He used the journey into the prison to show Tommy that this wasn't the time for joking or chatter. This was a time to be serious. But Tommy couldn't be serious for more than a minute at a time, trying to crack jokes along the way. Sam hid any smile that he has behind his mask. He couldn't betray that the moment was less serious to him when Tommy was like that. He needed Tommy to know the seriousness of the situation.

And even though he did quiet a little as they went, he still rambled, still talked out loud like that energy that'd been bottled up inside of him was going to disappear with the words coming out of his mouth. But it didn't. And when Tommy was across the platform, at the cell, that was the one time that Sam let his nerves show. He shook his hand, getting rid of the anxious energy. Tommy was looking away, but Dream wasn't. Dream looked past Tommy. His head tilted at Sam's actions. And at that moment, Sam regretted showing any sign of weakness before the lava had cascaded down the walls again, but it was too late.

Sam turned away from the wall of lava and walked into the side room where the cameras and monitors for the prison sat. He locked the door behind him and then settled down to look at the cameras. He could hear them talking too. He didn't want to listen to them, but he wanted to make sure that Tommy was as safe as possible. He could get the kid out if anything went too wrong.

But nothing did. Sam didn't understand everything that was said, the things that Tommy used against Dream, but he knew enough to understand why Dream was the bad guy in the story. But there were these moments when Tommy's tone faltered or his voice cracked or the way that Tommy told Dream to do something that made Sam remember just how young Tommy really was and how he's dealt with too much, too fast.

And as Tommy started asking Dream these questions, pressing for answers, and Dream keeps backing away from the subject, Dream called for Sam. He didn't move immediately. He sat, let Tommy ask one, two, three more times. And it was then that Dream's mask faced the camera and Sam can almost hear him in the room.

"I think you should go, Tommy."

Sam got up immediately. He wasn't sure if he was overreacting to the potential threat that Dream seemed to lace into his words, but he directed Tommy out of the cell and back to safety. When Tommy was out of the cell, Sam tried to be a little bit softer, calmer. Tommy didn't talk as much on the way out as he did on the way in, but he was still chattering as they went and when he got his things and was ready to go out of the prison again.

"I'm tired of fighting, Sam," Tommy said, staring at the portal. "But I'm going to find something cool to do here, something fun and exciting."

"You'll find something worth your time," Sam agreed with a nod. "And let me know if you ever need my help."

Tommy nodded and grinned at him. Sam opened the portal so that he can get out of the prison. And when he could see that Tommy was standing in front of the prison, he closed the portal entirely. Sam sighed and moved away from the front desk to make his way back through the prison to the backroom where he can watch the cameras. Normally, he would leave Dream alone, but there was something about the situation that had him on edge. Dream seeing Tommy, the person that he cared about most, wasn't going to leave Dream in a good state and he was more likely to make an attempt to get out of the prison.

But Dream was standing still, staring at the wall of lava and just looking forward, doing nothing else. Before Tommy had come, he would spend his time sitting on the floor, back against the wall, staring into space or at the clock. There wasn't much else that he did before. This was the first time that Dream has done something that's out of the ordinary. But it wouldn't the last.

Dream turned away from the lava, looking at one of the cameras on the wall, masked face just tilted a little bit. "Sam, do you want to hear a story?"

Sam didn't answer, didn't acknowledge that Dream is speaking. Instead, he tried something. He nodded.

Dream laughed. "I know you don't want to hear the story that I have to tell. After all, you think you know all the stories about me and what I've done, don't you? But what you're forgetting is that everything that's happened up to this point started because Tommy decided to play a game with me. He decided that he would try to keep away some discs from me. And in trying to hide it, he just...ruined the game. And after I found the discs, after I mined out his entire hill to look for them, I made him a good offer. The discs that he treasured so much, that he had spent so much time gathering, in return for one piece of armor that he had made. It wasn't even the best armor. He could've made better armor again. But instead, he clung to that armor and demanded the discs back.

"And he tried to trick me. Over and over, he would set down the armor, pretend like he was going to let me have it, and then run away with it at the last minute. I mean I did the same to him. I would set down discs that weren't actually his and then I would burn them or take them back. But he was the one that started the fucking game. And he was the one that decided to put the discs above anything else that he was doing. I was cruel, yes, but he was the one that wouldn't just let it fucking go."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sam asked through the speakers. "I know enough. I don't need to know every detail of what you did to them."

"Because Sam, I want you to see that this could've been over so quickly. I could've been done with this so fast. This conflict, so many of the conflicts on this server started and kept going because Tommy decided to play these games and never give up. He's fucked over the server in so many ways, started people on wars of their own just because of the way that he went around causing havoc everywhere that he went. You guys keep pointing at me like I'm the bad guy, but Tommy didn't play fair first. Tommy started all of this. He could have prevented so much chaos. But he didn't. Everything up until now is ultimately Tommy's fault."

Sam was silent. He knew that Tommy had started a lot of things early on in this place and he knew that if you reached, you could probably blame some of it on him for not backing down, but Tommy was just a kid. And the weight of wars wasn't on his shoulders; it was on the shoulders of every adult that had made this path for him. And ultimately it was Dream's fault. But Sam didn't say a word, didn't get up and leave, just sat. He knew already that if he left, Dream would just wait until he was back. He didn't know how Dream knew where he was or what he was doing, but he wasn't going to ask those questions. He didn't want to ask those questions.

"He didn't take his chance to stop this and now he's ruined these lands for the rest of you, poisoning the water. All of you got dragged into this. And I was a hero, I took him away, took him far away from you guys, away from your builds. What I asked for, what I did, everything was just to make this place a better world. There was no way that we could have continued like that with him pushing everyone to their limits. I was merciful. I took his tools, destroyed the things that he could use to get back, taught him the rules, and kept him away. And it was better. There was less chaos, the walls came down. People were finally at peace. But instead of that, all of you listened to him as he walked down that path. All of you said goodbye. All of you decided that he was worth more than the world. I could've kept him away, but no. Punz stepped in-"

"Stop." Sam's eyes were focused on the camera. He was afraid to blink. He had offered Tommy a place to go after he was exiled and he had never heard back, didn't know what had happened to him. And he knew that Dream was watching him, but... "What did you do his things in exile?"

Dream let out a sigh like he was tired of this. "I destroyed them. Almost daily. Couldn't let him get back to you guys without me being aware of what he was doing. He had to stay out there and I made sure that he stayed put. But don't think of it too badly, Sam. He had his fun. He played with my trident and had a great time flying through the air. He built things with Wilbur. But he needed to stay out there, away from everyone."

"You isolated a kid and took his things?"

"He wasn't alone! He had me! He had Ghostbur! I took things only because he kept doing things that he shouldn't, trying to find ways to get back to L'manberg or other friends. And I made sure that they weren't just in my possession, they were just gone. I didn't take, I just got rid of them with a little fire, maybe a little TNT."

Sam sat back in his chair. He put a hand to his mouth. The locker that Tommy had fled to at the end of it. The way that he had spent so long double-checking the things that he had put away. The way that he had been so relieved.

And then he remembered back to the confrontation. Tommy had told Dream to put his things in the hole. A revenge reaction. Sam nearly slammed his hand down onto the desk, but he refrained, keeping the anger inside and just tightening his fists for a moment before he spoke, voice low and dangerous. "He was just a kid, Dream. He's still _just_ a kid. You didn't...need to do any of that."

"There was no other way to keep him where I wanted him," Dream said, pushing his mask up a little, enough to show his widening grin. "I thought a Warden would understand."

"I would never hold a kid responsible for all the things that you did. You're the one that should've taken the higher path. You should've just let it go and not continued the conflict. You're the adult, you should have just let it go."

"Oh, Sam," Dream said, standing in front of a camera, leaning in as close as he could. "Let's be real. It was just too fun to have his life in the palm of my hand. How could I say no to letting him play himself further and further into my hand? He looked so DAMN sad that last day I saw him there on that beach. He didn't know when to leave everything alone. So I took it all." Dream pulled the whole mask off, showing his face to Sam. He was all too wide smile and wild eyes, matching the tone of his voice.

Sam stood up, trying to think back to what he had heard from Tubbo. He had thought that Tommy was dead after he had gone out there to try and visit his friend, he assumed that there was still something to see there. But there wasn't. "What the fuck did you do?"

Dream pulled back down the mask, voice measured again when he opened his mouth. "I destroyed the portal, his tent, that little fort that Wilbur had built out of logs, everything. And I let him stay there in the wake of all that. I thought he would listen this time, but he didn't. He left and he went to Techno and I had to hunt him down all over again."

Sam put his hands to his eyes, blocking out the image of Dream in the cell. He didn't want to see him. He didn't want to think about him. "I would say that I should have never worked for you, but at least making Pandora's Vault has resulted in me being able to put you away and never do this shit again."

"Are you sure it's enough, Sam?"

The question, the sound of it, came from two places at once. He heard it through the computer, but there was an echo of it just in his ear like Dream was in the room. Sam looked around him, lowering his hands from his face, checking to make sure that there was nothing weird happening. He could hear Dream laughing, the sound bouncing around him and coming from the computer at the same time.

"Are you absolutely sure that I'm trapped in here?"

Sam looked at the computer screen. Dream was sitting still in the middle of the cell, looking more relaxed and carefree than he liked. Sam reached out and shut off the screen and left the room. He walked through all the defenses, double-checked every part, and then walked out of the prison, out into the bright day. In the distance, he could hear Tommy yelling about a project that he wanted to work on. When Tommy spotted Sam walking that way, he started yelling for Sam to help him with the building.

"I don't think I could help you with it today, but I can ask my friend Sam Nook to help you with it, Tommy," Sam said as he walked over, phone in hand, ordering a mask and looking up audio clips from one of the few games that he knew Tommy liked. He could pretend to be that character, could bring a game into the world, a fair one. Not something made by a madman.

\---

Dream sat alone in his cell, no one left to bother. He pulled the mask up and off his face and then set the mask down on the ground. He picked up the notebook that he had set down and started writing away, not anything that Tommy had written in the journal as 'homework.'

No, he needed to make sure that the histories were well-recorded for the far-flung future that looked back on these days in their sparkling cities.

**Author's Note:**

> I just want the best for Sam and for the kids on the SMP but so far seems like I just get to worry about them all the time. Just wanted to write this down because it was living in my head and I needed space for other ideas.
> 
> See you later, I'll be working on other fics now. Probably some fluff. We all need some fluff, I think.


End file.
